India's National Magazine
From the publishers of THE HINDU

Vol. 16 :: No. 04 :: Feb. 13 - 26, 1999

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COVER STORY

A tenuous peace

A semblance of normalcy has been restored in South Gujarat, but the Christian community is yet to regain its sense of security.

V. VENKATESAN

ALTHOUGH the series of violent attacks on Christians in South Gujarat, which began on Christmas day, have subsided following widespread protests by secular groups, the State Government has done little to convince the minority community about any resolve to prevent further attacks by Hindu zealots who continue to enjoy official patronage because of their links with the Sangh Parivar. While Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and Bajrang Dal activists continue to spew venom on the minorities, the Bharatiya Janata Party Government headed by Keshubhai Patel has turned a blind eye to the larger issue of the threat to communal harmony. Shaken by all-round condemnation but reluctant to act against members of the Parivar, the Government sought to give a local angle to the issue and considered local solutions to effect a truce.

In Dangs district, which first reported cases of violence, normalcy returned, thanks to the persistent efforts of the district administration. The Government, prodded by an over-anxious Centre, appointed former District Collector of Dangs S.K. Nanda, now Secretary with the State Government, secretary in charge of the district. The Government transferred Bharat Joshi, the Collector, to the State Secretariat in Gandhinagar, after a fact-finding committee of the Union Home Ministry indicted him for permitting a Hindu Vikas Manch rally at Ahwa on December 25. Nanda, along with J.P. Gupta, the new Collector, and Manoj Shashidar, the Superintendent of Police, ensured that normalcy was restored.

Tracing the roots of the district's current crisis to poverty, Nanda persuaded the Government to evolve a Rs.446-lakh development package with the accent on employment generation, micro watershed management, salt conservation projects, promotion of horticulture and the filling up of teachers' posts in schools. The district administration involved both Hindu and Christian tribal people in repairing or rebuilding the places of worship that were damaged or destroyed and organised rallies of schoolchildren to promote communal harmony. The administration also persuaded both the communities to forget and forgive and stop encouraging outsiders to meddle in matters related to religion in the district.

"We advised the poor tribal people to bury their differences. The results are encouraging," Nanda told Frontline. He averred that the "outsiders" who had instigated tension in the district had been asked to leave. Swami Asheemanand of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram at Waghai is among those who have left the district.

The approach of the local administration has been to fix the responsibility for the attacks on leaders of both the communities (although the attacks were mostly one-sided) and appeal to them to avoid contentious issues that tend to divide the communities. In other words, the administration has refrained from taking stringent action against the guilty or ordering an impartial inquiry into the incidents, perhaps for fear of reviving tensions. The guilty, who were mainly people who came from other districts, have by and large gone scot-free although a few members of the Sangh Parivar have been arrested. Normalcy first, investigation and punishment of the guilty later - this appears to be the attitude of the authorities in Gandhinagar and Ahwa.

The priority the Government accorded to the restoration of peace is the result of severe strictures that came from unexpected quarters. The State Government suffered a major embarrassment on January 10 when its counsel in the Supreme Court in the Narmada dam dispute, Fali S.Nariman, decided not to represent the State any more, in protest against its failure to protect the minorities. The State Government tried to persuade him to reverse his decision, but the eminent lawyer stood his ground. In 1975 Nariman had resigned as Additional Solicitor-General in protest against the imposition of the Emergency by Indira Gandhi.

GUJARAT Governor Anshuman Singh was transferred to Rajasthan on January 13 amid reports that relations between him and Keshubhai Patel had come under severe strain following the concern he expressed about the State Government's failure to prevent the attacks on Christians. Anshuman Singh had also promised a Christian delegation that he would exercise his powers to protect the minorities. His transfer has raised questions about the Centre's motives.

Opposition parties such as the Congress(I) and the Rashtriya Janata Party have criticised the Governor's transfer, accusing Keshubhai Patel of demanding it. Dr. Tahir Mahmood, Chairman of the National Commission on Minorities (NCM), described the transfer as "politically unwise".

On January 5, the NCM constituted a special bench to sit in Gandhinagar on January 7 and examine under oath representatives of both the communities. In view of a meeting of the full Commission scheduled for January 11, the Commission rejected the State Govern-ment's request to postpone the sitting of the bench. In its interim report on the violence, which was released on January 11, it expressed its doubts over the effectiveness and impact of the actions stated to have been taken to control the situation.

R.V. MOORTHY
A demonstration outside Gujarat Bhavan in New Delhi against attacks on Christians in Gujarat.

The Commission urged political parties to desist from looking at the Gujarat situation from a political perspective, in view of the dangers involved in politicising a communal problem. In particular, it was convinced that there was a prima facie case for the Union Government to use its powers under Article 256 of the Constitution, to give necessary "directions" to the Gujarat Government for the exercise of executive power so as to ensure compliance with existing laws (including the constitutional provisions on Fundamental Rights, the Indian Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure) in the context of the communal situation in the State.

The NCM also expressed its conviction that the situation in Gujarat qualified for description as "internal disturbance" as mentioned in Article 355 and that it is the "duty of the Union" to protect the States under the Article. Under the NCM Act, 1992, the Centre has to place the statutory recommendation of the Commission before Parliament with an action-taken memorandum. However, the Centre has sought clarifications from the Commission on its recommendations. The NCM has refrained from recommending the use of Article 356 to dismiss the Keshubhai Patel Government. The Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha has demanded President's Rule in the State and the Congress(I) has supported the demand.

The NCM has since submitted its final report to the Government. According to media accounts, the report has attributed the spurt in the violence to Hindu fundamentalist organisations' attempt to reconvert the tribal people who had converted to Christianity. Blaming the Government for its inept handling of the situation, it called for stringent action against the guilty. The Commission also reportedly referred to the State Government's reply to it stating that it had no evidence of forced conversions in the region although the increase in the Christian population in Dangs district between 1981 and 1991 was abnormal.

Despite the NCM's strictures, the Centre continued to adopt an unfriendly attitude with regard to Christian missionaries. Asked about the Gujarat incidents, Union Home Minister L.K. Advani said on January 16 that more than 70 per cent of privately made foreign donations that had come into the country between October and December 1998 were for Christian missionaries.

Advani's remark drew sharp protests from John Dayal, national secretary of the All India Catholic Union, and Dr. Ambrose Pinto, Director of the Indian Social Institute, New Delhi. They alleged that false data of the kind Advani provided were responsible for the incidents that rocked Dangs district. They urged the Home Minister to make public the amounts and the names of all those who had received foreign funds in India. They also deplored the use of the term "missionaries" while referring to varied organisations, including human rights movements and non-governmental organisations, as it gave the impression that all foreign funds were being used for religious conversions.

A subsequent press release issued by the Home Ministry gave the details of funds received between October and December 1998 by what it called 'Christian organisations'. During this quarter, foreign contribution amounting to approximately Rs.19.80 crores were received in the country; of this Rs.14 crores was received by 'Christian organisations', the press note said. However, the Ministry neither gave details of the activities of the 'Christian organisations' nor provided evidence about the use of such funds for forcible conversions.

MEANWHILE, there are allegations that Hindu sugar mill owners owing allegiance to the Sangh Parivar are refusing to employ Christian tribal workers unless they reconverted to Hinduism. The Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, a front organisation for the Sangh Parivar, is reportedly engaged in reconversion efforts although the Vishwa Hindu Parishad has taken a public stand against reconversion. According to reports, efforts to impart training in martial arts to Hindus among the tribal people in Uchhal and Vyara taluks of Surat district and the fear of further attacks on churches there have forced Christians in the area to guard their religious places in the night. On the surface normalcy has returned to South Gujarat; but a sense of security and confidence among the minorities are far from achieved.